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Problem solving: How can we help students overcome cognitive difficulties

This approach does not ensure that students learn to solve problems and above all to think about the soluton process in a consistent manner. Topics such as atoms, molecules, and the mole concept are fundamental in chemistry and instructors may think that, for our students, should be easy to learn these concepts and to use them in solving problems, but it is not always so. If teachers do not put emphasis on the logical process during solving problems, students are at risk to become more profcient at applying the formulas rather than to reason. | Journal of Technology and Science Education PROBLEM SOLVING: HOW CAN WE HELP STUDENTS OVERCOME COGNITIVE DIFFICULTIES Liberato Cardellini Dipartmento SIMAU, Universita' Politecnica della Marche Italy l.cardellini@univpm.it Abstract The traditonal approach to teach problem solving usually consists in showing students the solutons of some example-problems and then in asking students to practce individually on solving a certain number of related problems. This approach does not ensure that students learn to solve problems and above all to think about the soluton process in a consistent manner. Topics such as atoms, molecules, and the mole concept are fundamental in chemistry and instructors may think that, for our students, should be easy to learn these concepts and to use them in solving problems, but it is not always so. If teachers do not put emphasis on the logical process during solving problems, students are at risk to become more profcient at applying the formulas rather than to reason. This disappointng result is clear from the outcomes of questonnaires meant to measure the ability to calculate the mass of a sample from the number of atoms and vice versa. A suggeston from the cognitve load theory has proved a useful way to improve students’ skills for this type of problems: the use of worked out examples. The repetton afer two weeks of the Friedel-Maloney test afer the use of worked examples shows that students' skills signifcantly improve. Successful students in all questons jumped from 2 to 64%. Keywords – Problem solving, worked examples, Psychological measurement, Problem representaton, Cognitve architecture. ---------- 1 INTRODUCTION An important and qualifying hallmark of teaching science is the ability to promote problem solving and critcal thinking skills. It is critcal that future citzens have skills in problem-solving to address the range of needs in their life and careers. Problem-solving is an important higher-order cognitve skill. "To solve a .